Crazy Eyes and the Very Bad Day
by JustMyLuckiness
Summary: Ever have one of those days? With her boyfriend on a book tour to generate some positive press for Black Pawn after Gina's untimely passing, Kate has a day that goes from bad to worse. One-shot continuation of the Crazy Eyes universe.


**A/N: Another Crazy Eyes story! As usual, this is an Adorable Psycho-style Castle story. The original credit for AP goes to Wepdiggy, who has allowed this Castle franchise of his awesome creation.  
**

**As in the first Crazy Eyes iteration, this is purely for fun and not to be taken seriously. It's a re-imagining of Kate and Rick if they had gotten together at the end of Season 2 when Kate made the decision to stop letting everything get in their way and take possession of what she really wanted. How she declares that possession...well...you'll see :)**

**I have another M & M chapter ready to go, but this inspiration hit and wouldn't let go until I did something about it. I know that Montgomery comes off as an ass in this, I know, but he's purely inspired by the last few weeks I've had at my own job, and not any animosity toward the character. **

**Of course, I don't own anything connected to Castle, the characters, AP, or anything remotely resembling the Castle universe. **

**No beta, so all mistakes are mine.**

* * *

Crazy Eyes and the Very Bad Day

* * *

_Beep…Beep…Beep…_

Kate reached over and slammed her fist down on her alarm clock off, muttering curses at the annoying device as it dragged her from an absolutely _delicious_ dream in which Rick was doing the most wonderful things to her right on her desk in the precinct. Somehow, no one seemed to notice as he swept everything on her desk to the floor, laid her down and pounded away to her intense delight, but the damned blaring box woke her just before she could reach her climax. She growled in frustration as her physical arousal faded with the memory of the dream.

Normally, she would be able to roll over and get her wonderful, sweet, charming, dead sexy boyfriend to take care of what her dream could not satisfy, but for the last two weeks, she'd been waking up alone in a cold bed thanks to Paula and Black Pawn. Apparently in the wake of Gina's 'unfortunate passing' the powers that be determined that a book tour was in order to drum up some positive press. Thus, for thirteen days now, Kate had been dragged kicking and screaming into consciousness at the beck and call of one of the world's most annoying machines without her morning pick-me-up (two of them if you counted the coffee only Castle could get right).

The morning didn't get any better after that. Her apartment's water heater decided to take the day off as well, forcing her to take the world's fastest icy shower. Being pulled from _that _kind of dream into a cold shower was a cruel irony that Castle would have appreciated her noticing as such. Kate smirked lasciviously to herself. When Castle was proud of her, good things happened. Good things of course meaning mind-blowing sex.

Not only did she have to face the day without a morning drilling, the universe seemed especially angry with her. Stepping out of her building, the ever-reliable forecasters who had called for a sunny day were not just wrong, but epically so. As soon as she was outside, the heavens opened and drenched her from head to toe. Already running late, she could do no more than run back inside for a quick change of clothes, leaving her hair and makeup a disaster.

The ridiculousness continued with her arrival at the precinct. Her lateness from the morning drenching ensured that the garage she usually parked on was full, meaning she had to find a spot on the street, in the same cloudburst that ruined her departure. Compounding the indignity of being soaked again, she stepped on a sewer grate in the sidewalk on her way inside and snapped one of her favorite heels. There was always an emergency pair of flats in her desk, but the loss of one of her favorite pairs of shoes just kept the crap-tastic day going.

After pathetically hobbling her way into the women's bathroom near the homicide bullpen, dripping the whole time, she dried herself off as best as she could with a handful of paper towels. Since she never mastered the espresso machine in the break room, she had to settle for what Castle – thinking of his name started the whole longing cycle over again, which only exacerbated her growing scowl – so artfully termed 'monkey pee in battery acid'. After a solid hour of mind-numbing paperwork, she heard Ryan and Esposito turn a lead on their latest case, but when she was preparing to head out with them, Captain Montgomery poked his head out of his office to remind her that she was overdue to re-qualify with her firearm, so until that happened, she was benched. Since the range wasn't technically open yet, Kate had to watch her boys practically race out of the precinct, delighted to be away from her ever-souring bad mood.

The one thing she had to look forward to a lunch date at Remy's. Castle was due to arrive late in the morning, so they would be able to celebrate his return with lunch at one of their favorite cafes. That shining hope was the only thing keeping her from losing it right at her desk. The awful start to the day was currently driving her up the wall, but whenever she felt like she was about to lose it, she kept checking the saved text messages Rick had sent during his absence. That thread was wearing extremely thin at the moment, however.

Re-certification rules weren't the only thing her captain was driving her nuts with. While she stewed over being chained to her desk until the appointed range time, Montgomery poked his head out again and summoned her into his office. When she got there, rather than the expected apology for something as trivial as gun policy, he instead handed her a stack of folders six inches thick.

"This paperwork is terrible, Beckett. Didn't you get the memo about the new formats? None of these were filled out right," he informed her.

With widening eyes, Kate could only respond, "Sir?"

"You heard me. You're going to have to re-do all of that, and do it right this time! I have the brass breathing down my neck because their bureaucrats don't have your forms done right. You're going to have to reschedule your range appointment until after you re-do all that paperwork," he looked down at his own paperwork dismissively.

"You have to be kidding," Kate protested. The files handed to her would take hours to complete, and that was after she got caught up on the new formats some pencil-pusher decided was necessary for the same information they always reported.

"Do I look like I'm kidding, Detective? You heard me. Go re-do all those forms. Dismissed."

* * *

At 11, the day took another brutal turn when she looked up Castle's flight and belatedly realized the rain which ruined her early morning was continuing to mess with her, delaying Castle's flight by at least two hours. No Remy's lunch date today. Deciding that working off her rapidly escalating stress was preferable to eating alone, she headed down to the gym, intending to run off her frustrations.

It wasn't meant to be. Kate's rotten day kept going when every treadmill was occupied. Growling in frustration, she turned to the heavy bag, but that was already in use. Realizing that even the heavy bag was getting a pounding when she wasn't soured her mood further.

With an indignant huff, Kate decided to go to Remy's anyway. Even if Castle couldn't join her, she was going to get the most greasy, fat-laden, cheese-dripping burger they had. Montgomery tried to stop her on the way out, but her death-glare froze him in place and he decided that discretion was the better part of valor. She stomped over to Remy's and was just sitting down when she had to do a double-take. As terrible as this day had been so far, she wasn't a bad enough person to deserve _this_.

Ellie Monroe sat alone at a table, yakking away on her cell phone.

_Wonderful. Could this day get any worse? _As soon as she realized that thought, Kate grimaced. With the way things had gone today, tempting the universe to dump on her even more was a bad idea.

As she tried to hide herself, the actress looked up and noticed her. A huge grin spread across her face as she waved and called out "Detective Beckett! Come join me!"

_Awesome. Just what I wanted to do today, having lunch with one of Castle's flings._ She waved back at the woman and nodded with a huge fake smile. The walk to Ellie's table felt oddly like how she always imagined her suspects felt when she was taking them to a holding cell.

"How are you? It's been too long!" Ellie gushed as she slid into the booth.

Kate grimaced but placed her order at the waitress's prompt arrival. Looking back to her companion, she answered, "I've been good. Busy, but good. How's the movie career treating you?"

The other woman gave a grimace of her own. "Not great. I haven't really had many roles for a little while. That's actually why I'm back in New York. I heard there were some difficulties with Natalie Rhodes on the set, and I was hoping to see if I could…convince…Rick to put in a good word for me."

Ellie's emphasis on the word 'convince' along with a wink was a none-too-subtle indicator of exactly how she intended to persuade Castle. Knowing their previous relationship, Kate's stomach started doing flips as she methodically clenched and unclenched her fist under the table. It wasn't as though she thought Rick would be foolish enough to cheat on her, but the way this woman just casually thought she could roll into New York for a roll in the hay got her blood boiling.

Clearly she needed a lesson in boundaries. "Um, I think you might find that a bit of a challenge this time, Ellie. You see, Castle and I are together now," she declared with her best 'I know you did it and you're going to confess it now' stare.

"Oh, really? Why would that be a problem? I'm not trying to steal him from you or date him. I just want to take him out for a spin. It's not a big deal!" Ellie protested lightly, blissfully unaware that she was staring death in the face.

Kate set her jaw and leaned forward. "It actually is a big deal. He's mine, and I don't share, even for a…business transaction. Do you honestly think you can sway him by whoring yourself out?"

To Kate's eternal consternation, the actress laughed in her face. "Whoring myself out? Oh Kate, you have so much to learn. In Hollywood, this is how things work! If you want your back scratched, you have to do a little scratching of your own. I only need him for one night, and then you can have him back. I just need to make sure he tells the producers to swap me for Natalie. It's just business, nothing personal."

Kate's eye twitched. The last straw had finally broken her back.

With a deceptively calm voice and a wide, purely faked smile, she leaned back from the table. "Well, when you put it like that, it makes total sense. I'll tell you what: Castle's apartment isn't too far from here. Why don't I take you for a ride over there?"

"Really? That would be great! I wouldn't even have to get a hotel tonight then," Ellie smiled in relieved triumph.

"Yes," Kate said slowly and deliberately as they left the restaurant and the actress threw a few bills on the table, "That would solve everything, wouldn't it?"

* * *

Richard Castle stood his rolling suitcase and garment bag up behind him and attempted to unlock his loft's front door, thoroughly exhausted from the travel. The delayed flight resulted in a much longer layover than necessary in Chicago. _Stumbling home at late at night wasn't any fun if one is coming from the airport instead of the bar one owns,_ he reflected as he finally got the key into the lock.

"Oh thank God I'm home," he sighed, throwing his keys onto the table. It was only then that he looked around and noticed how different his apartment was that evening. Soft music played from the iPod stereo, hundreds of candles of all shapes and sizes littered every flat surface of the main living areas, and rose petals were strewn everywhere.

"Mother? Alexis?"

"At a hotel for the weekend," he heard a soft voice purr from his bedroom door. Looking up, he saw his extraordinary girlfriend wearing…_holy shit_…his brain short-circuited as he took in the cleavage barely held in place by the blood red bra which had to be at least a size too small.

"How…what…who…" he babbled, the ability to speak or even think coherently long gone.

"I missed you too, Rick," she chuckled sensually before turning around and showing him the back of the G-string completing her ensemble, "Are you coming?"

"It should be illegal for you to ask me that question when you're wearing that," he growled, dropping his luggage in place.

"It's been two weeks since you've given me a proper drilling. Why are you still standing way over there?" she purred, throwing a seductive wink over one shoulder.

The speed with which he ran past her into the bedroom turned her chuckle into a full-blown belly laugh. She followed eagerly, using the time he spent getting his shirt and undershirt off over his head to turn off the late news program she had on the TV in his bedroom. Her timing couldn't have been better, since the anchor was just repeating their lead story of the evening: the discovery of B-list actress Ellie Monroe's apparent suicide, found hanging by her own bra from the upstairs railing of a by-the-hour motel known for its heavy clientele of prostitutes.

"What was that?" he asked as he finally freed himself from his shirt.

"Nothing at all. Just background noise while I got ready for you," Kate quickly responded, tossing the remote on the nightstand.

All thoughts left her head when Rick's pants hit the floor.

_At least this miserable day ended well,_ she thought as Rick climbed on top of her and captured her lips in a passionate kiss.

* * *

**A/N: I know it's different, but it's meant to be. Let me know what you think!**


End file.
